In this cake decorating tutorial video, I’m showing you how to make an April the Giraffe Cake! This is no joke! If you haven’t heard, April is a pregnant giraffe who’s keepers have been live streaming her pregnancy for the last number of weeks. To celebrate the birth of her baby, I decided to create a cake in April’s honor! April agreed to have the baby today, April 1, if I would make her a cake.

Sound familiar? Like a Ferrero Rocher you say? Well, it is, but in GIANT form!

I’ve been wanting to make a homemade ferrero rocher every since I made homemade nutella. But, rather than making regular sized ones, I opted to go big. ”Go big or go home” is what my brother used to say. He was referring to hockey and not chocolate, but that’s not important. When I’m referring to chocolate, I’m always referring to going BIG.

Hazelnuts are the main flavouring component to a ferrero. I find it next to impossible to find hazelnuts already roasted. To roast the hazelnuts, simply line a baking tray with parchment paper, and toast for 15-20 mins at 325F. Once the hazelnuts are fragrant and toasted, allow them to cool, and peel the skins from the nuts. They’re now ready to use!

To make the giant ferrero rocher, the general idea is to encase a hazelnut/hazelnut butter mixture, nutella wafers and coat the entire thing in chocolate and crushed hazelnuts.

If you prefer to stick with the smaller, traditional size, you can definitely do that with this recipe too. Instead of using the hazelnut butter and hazelnuts to make the core, simply use a single hazelnut. Wrap the hazelnut in the nutella mixture, roll into a ball, roll in nuts and finally melted chocolate.

I must not be feeling well if those words actually just came out of my mouth…well my fingers.

What I mean is, sometimes buttercream is too thick or heavy, or sweet, for the type of dessert you are making. Sometimes good ole fashioned whipped cream is perfect for your project. BUT, if you’ve ever tried to decorate with plain whipped cream, you’ll know that it doesn’t last for long in it original glory and it realitivly quickly turns to a runny mess.

Having tried to figure out how to prevent this problem for a while now, I did some research and figured out three different ways that you can use to stabilize whipped cream: cornstarch, gelatin and my go to, icing sugar.

Using a knife is not the only way to level a cake . . . well, it’s arguablely the best way to level the cake AFTER the baking process, but to cut down on cake “waste”, try out these Bake Even Strips!

All you do is soak them in water for a couple of minutes, and then wrap them around your baking pan! The ones that I have fit around my 8″ and 9″ baking pans and they seriously work wonders!

Basically, and I am NOT a scientist, the strips cause the heat to be more evenly distributed throughout the pan, so the edges don’t bake so much faster than the middle. I’ll admit, I was a doubter when I first was recommended these, but after my first use of them, I was convinced. They totally work and basically eliminate the rounded middle of cakes. Pretty cool, but if you don’t believe me, check out the video and see for yourself.

Easter is coming up quickly around the corner . . . why is it so early this year? Or is that just me thinking that it’s early? Regardless of when I “think” it’s supposed to happen, the Easter bunny has puked into the aisles of the local stores, and the Cadbury Cream Eggs are flying off the shelves!

I actually happen to love Easter . . . well, duh, who wouldn’t love a holiday where CHOCOLATE comes to town? Four days off, endless supplies of chocolate and a delicious ham dinner cooked by my Mom . . . BEST holiday ever!

To add to the Easter excitement in Cranbrook (and everywhere!), we have created a video that is a How-To video based on a cupcake design that we released last year for our 2011 Easter celebrations. If you are a beginning decorator, you will find this video completely within your comfort range!

Carrot cake cupcakes are the flavour that satisfy taste buds throughout the generations . . . the young, and the old and everyone in between. It’s traditional, it’s standard yet it can be fresh and unique with the right combination of spices!

Making carrot cake is a but more time intensive than say, a vanilla cake recipe, but it is well worth the mess of grating fresh carrots!